miércoles, 17 de enero de 2018

Megyn Kelly spends half of her show dishing on details of Trump’s alleged affair

Taking a strategy straight from the political play book of muckraker Michael Wolff and discredited British spy Christopher Steele, veteran news anchor Megyn Kelly turned her Tuesday segment of NBC’s Today show into a salacious tabloid full of nothing but gossip and hearsay.

Kelly spent more than half her Tuesday show on a miserly attempt to frame the president as an immoral adulterer and womanizer, citing unconfirmed accounts from a former adult film star who was accused of having an affair with Donald Trump in 2006, the year after he married his current wife, Melania.

“Did he or didn’t he?” Kelly asked at the top of her 9 a.m. show. “President Trump denying reports that in 2006 he cheated on wife, Melania. And reports that his lawyer paid to cover it up.”

Gossip Queen

Kelly’s scandalous narrative revolved around a 2006 extramarital relationship that Trump allegedly cultivated with adult film star Stormy Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford. But there are some holes in this dramatic story of power, holes that Kelly attempted to fill with hearsay and prognostication — the hallmarks of post-Trump journalism.

In her interview with Daniels’ friend and fellow porn actress Alana Evans, Kelly acknowledged that both Trump and Daniels have denied claims that there was an affair, but cited various media reports which state that Trump’s lawyer, Michael Cohen, provided Daniels with a cash settlement of $130,000 in return for her silence.

For her part, Daniels denies these claims.

“Rumors that I have received hush money from Donald Trump are completely false,” she said. The White House has also strongly denied reports of the affair, calling them “recycled reports.”

But that didn’t stop Kelly from spending her Tuesday show speculating about “the truth” of this and other alleged affairs between models and the now-president. Take a look at what she had to say:

On Megyn Kelly TODAY, Megyn is joined by Alana Evans, a friend and former colleague of the adult film star known as Stormy Daniels, who was reportedly paid to deny having an affair with Donald Trump in 2006.

Slanderous story

According to the shaky tale told by Kelly’s guest, Evans ran into Daniels, then her neighbor at a Lake Tahoe celebrity golf tournament in July of 2006, where she says Daniels was excited to have had apparently just met Trump. Evans recalled receiving phone calls later in the evening from Daniels, who asked her to “hang out” and “party” with her and the now-president.

“What did you think that they wanted you to show up there for?” asked Kelly.

“I can have my thoughts and my ideas,” Evans said. “If you’re inviting me to a hotel room to hang out with another man and a girlfriend of mine it’s very easy for you to believe that there’s going to be more going on there than just playing cards or scrabble.”

She reportedly turned off her phone, and refused the offers.

Evans later confessed to Kelly that she felt “very uncomfortable” after she was invited to the hotel room by Trump, but the adult film star was not uneasy because of the potential sexual expectations from her would-be hosts. Rather, Evans admits that her inner turmoil came from Trump’s celebrity.

“This is a man I grew up watching on television on the ‘Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous,'” Evans said.

Feel the Bern?

While Kelly allowed Evans nearly ten minutes to share her story, this was all forgotten when Kelly interjected, “And we should note, you – politically, you’re a Democrat.”

“I am a Democrat,” Evans confirmed. “But I’m a Bernie Sanders supporter. And so, you know, Hillary Clinton got my vote because it was the lesser of two evils. Sorry. But, you know, go Bernie! It wasn’t politically motivated whatsoever.”

Besides declaring her ideological allegiance to a far-left socialist, Evans also revealed the most obvious flaw in her account when she was asked if she was certain that Trump and Daniels were alone together in a hotel room.

Kelly’s sloppily staged production is what passes for real reporting in a post-truth society. As a seasoned journalist, Kelly should know better than to count on speculation and uncorroborated claims to construct a story with such slanderous details.

Imagine, during any other presidency, if a Today show host considered accusing the president of an adulterous affair by relying upon the account of a single, highly speculative source. But in 2018? Anything is possible.

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